Mike Desmond

Reporter

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. He also hosts “You and the Law,” a popular segment that involves interviews with local lawyers. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.

Area unions are pushing back against the U.S. Supreme Court's Janus v. AFSCME decision, which allows public employees to gain pay and benefits under union contracts without paying union dues. Union leaders made clear during a news conference Monday they expect a future push to do the same to private sector unions.

The long-discussed expansion of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery shifted from a bunch of architects around a computer screen to a project Monday, as the $155 million project went before the Buffalo Planning Board.

When St. Bonaventure University first-year students begin classes next month, it will be different in a very key way. They will be the first students in the Southern Tier school's major expansion into health sciences.

Let's say you have the greatest medicine and it meets a vital need, but you can't persuade doctors to use it. The University at Buffalo has a federal grant to bridge that gap, what's called implementation science.

The Erie County Legislature locked itself up Thursday in a round of recesses, legislative clarifications and proposed amendments of proposed amendments. It was over a U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting public employee union rights to collect dues from non-members.

Buffalo Common Council President Darius Pridgen says he hopes the next owner of the Towne Gardens housing complex and shopping plaza, located on Clinton Street and bordered by William Street and Jefferson Avenue, will be a better landlord than the individual being forced out in a foreclosure.

Two Buffalo council members are arguing the city is putting so much money into its outdoor pools for two months use a year that maybe it is time to look at additional indoor pools that would useable year-round.

Erie County legislators will be asked Thursday to make some budget transfers to cover costs from the Hepatitis A rush vaccinations in February. Covering the costs of staff and vaccines meant a county Health Department account is $74,000 over budget, with half a year to go.

Someone sent the Erie County District Attorney's office a bomb threat letter that included a white powder. DA John Flynn says he has a lot of people investigating the letter, which was sent from a state prison.

Affordable housing in Buffalo is an issue that affects thousands of people and it’s made worse by rising rents in some parts of the city. In the second part of a series, WBFO’s Mike Desmond asks: What can be done?

In Buffalo, the economy is improving and that’s generally good news, but it’s driving up rents in some neighborhoods. That’s bad for people who can’t afford to pay much. In the first of a two-part series, WBFO’s Mike Desmond takes a look at the issue of affordable housing.

First Calvary Missionary Baptist Church is expanding from its William and Jefferson neighborhood. The congregation plans to turn its current church into a family life center and then build a new church connected to the building along Jefferson.

For 75 years, the state's Cancer Registry has been collecting detailed information about cancer among New Yorkers. The data has identified fours areas of the state where there are significantly elevated levels of certain cancers. Among those areas is Buffalo's East Side and adjacent western Cheektowaga.

Buffalo Common Councilmembers are looking at potential changes to the city's development approval process because it is so intricate it can lock up. Council President Darius G. Pridgen says the process can be inconvenient for residents trying to monitor a project.

Anyone who has dealt with the building approval system in Buffalo City Hall knows it is complicated, tangled and somewhat circular. That could show at Tuesday afternoon's Common Council Legislation Committee, as NOCO asks for a zoning change for a house and double lot it recently bought on Elmwood Avenue.

A young resident of Niagara County was diagnosed with leukemia in 1966 and eventually died of it. But leading edge medical research kept Eric Wendel alive and with his family for years, rather than the months anticipated when he was diagnosed.

Vitamin D might seem like just another chemical on the long list of vitamins on the side of a multi-vitamin bottle. However, as University at Buffalo research suggests, it is a key chemical for living a long life.

Medicare and Medicaid are good for everyone, even those who don't use either federal program. WBFO’s Mike Desmond reports those are the views of a Cornell University faculty member speaking to a group of university alums Thursday evening in Buffalo.

Since 2000, CSX railroad has faced a persistent theft problem, with freight cars broken into while trains were changing crews in Frontier Yard. That's the rail yard which sprawls along Broadway in Buffalo and Cheektowaga.